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Defensive coordinator Pruitt takes job at UGA after championship season at FSU

FSU defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt answers questions during a news conference leading up the BCS National Championship Game between Florida State and Auburn. Pruitt is leaving FSU to take the same job at Georgia.(Photo: file photo)

For the second straight year, Florida State head football coach Jimbo Fisher will have to hire a new defensive coordinator.

Jeremy Pruitt, who helped the Seminoles to an undefeated, national-championship season in 2013, is leaving to take the defensive coordinator job at Georgia.

The move was confirmed by a Florida State official early Tuesday afternoon and then later announced by the University of Georgia.

“I’m ecstatic,” Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt said in a statement.

“This is an outstanding professional and personal opportunity,” added Pruitt. “I’m looking forward to meeting the current players and getting on the road to visit with recruits.”

Pruitt was hired last December to replace Mark Stoops, who left after three years on the Seminoles’ staff to be the head coach at the University of Kentucky. His success as a first-time defensive coordinator was immediate.

Not only did Florida State win its third national championship in 2013, but Pruitt’s unit led the nation in interceptions and scoring defense and was second in the nation in pass-efficiency defense and third in total defense.

Only two teams all season scored more than two touchdowns against the Seminoles, who held opponents to just 12.1 points per game.

Pruitt was a finalist this year for the Broyles Award, which goes annually to the nation’s top assistant coach.

Pruitt arrived at Florida State after serving as an assistant at Alabama. ESPN is reporting his salary will be $850,000 — more than $300,000 more than what he was making at FSU.

With Pruitt’s departure, the immediate focus for Florida State turns to who will replace him.

With the amount of talent returning for the Seminoles’ defense in 2014, Fisher should have a long list of candidates from which to choose.

On the current staff, defensive assistants Sal Sunseri and Charles Kelly both have previous defensive-coordinator experience. Sunseri, the defensive ends coach, was the coordinator at Iowa Wesleyan, Illinois State and Alabama A&M in the 1990s and has been an assistant coach on the college and NFL levels for almost 30 years. Sunseri also was the defensive coordinator at Tennessee in 2012.

Kelly, the linebackers and special teams coach, was the interim defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech in 2012 before joining the Florida State staff.